Kitchen appliances

[MkIV]

So many are considered quality brands. Can you guess what country every one of them is made in??

I would guess China but they could be made in Vietnam or India as well...

 

[Jimmie]

Odd question but stay with me. So I am at Macy's the other day waiting for my wife. I'm checking out the small appliances. Coffee/expresso makers, food processors etc. etc. Lot's of cool fancy stuff, if you're into that sort of thing. Prices from $69 to $999. See the list of brands below. Which of these would you consider ti be quality brands with a good reputation?


Kenrig
Kitchenaid
Black & Decker
Nexpresso
Cuisinart
Krups
DeLonghi
Bella Kucina
Breville
Waring

Coffee? Rebuilt Black and Stainless Bunn Commercial = $75 purchased ten years ago and still making 3 gallons of coffee per hour, each pot ready in about 4 minutes. (I hate waiting in the morning)

Espresso? Faema used between $500-$1500 and will make more espresso than you could drink in a lifetime without failing.

Jimmie

 

[julythermostats]

yeah Have had a cuisinart coffee maker for years and has never let me down and I paid 50 bucks for..The alone absolute apparatus I charge has got your endure name on it buddy...

________________
Programmable thermostats

 

[jasco]

So many are considered quality brands. Can you guess what country every one of them is made in??

very nice thread indeed!

for espresso go the italian way :-D

bialetti, delonghi, gaggia

As an Italian-Canadian with Chinese inlaws who drives around in a Swedish-designed car that is made in Japan and backed by a warranty from a bankrupt American company:

IMHO, where a product is made does not necessarily reflect quality (just like price and brand aren't necessarily indicative of quality). Part of the reason Chinese and Indonesian-made goods, and to a lesser degree Korean and Japanese-made goods, get a bad wrap is because, for purely economic reasons, products that are designed by a company (regardless of where the company or its designers are located) to be a 'cheap, not-so-high quality' product are manufactured there (because they can't afford to manufacture the product elsewhere). I.e., they are not lesser-quality because they were manufactured in those countries - they are lesser quality because they were designed to be lesser quality, and given the cost structure of the product it would not be possible to manufacture them in, for example, any country with high manufacturing costs. That said, in countries like Canada many products simply can't be manufactured here regardless of cost/quality - since, especially in the West, we don't have a workforce that is willing to do manufacturing jobs.

In the long term, I suspect that as the manufacturing capacity in high-wage countries is reduced and the manufacturing capabilities/skill/experience increases in countries like China, they will be able to tackle high-end mass-produced products as well as or better than anywhere else, and always at a lower cost, such that high-, low-, and medium-quality/cost products will be made in the same place, and it will really just become a matter of design (including how much resources are spent on quality assurances, parts/materials, etc.). I think the 'local, boutique, 'hand-made by the designer' cottage industries will continue, but I doubt that we will see the same amount of mid/higher-quality mass produced products being manufactured in US/EU or even Japan. Industries like auto are proving that they've survived this long only due to mucking with free trade and the maintenance of protectionist measures (but my sympathies to any of you who were laid-off recently . . . ), and that it's simply not sustainable to maintain such scale of manufacturing in these countries (i.e., people aren't going to continue to pay a higher price for same/inferior products just because of where they were manufactured). I'm not suggesting that such trade measures are inherently wrong and/or that countries have no legitimate interest in maintaining domestic production of goods - just that the realities of changing workforces is impacting manufacturing capabilities and costs.

There will always be exceptions though - like how the best hockey players will always come from Canada.

 

[jasco]

When my wife and I got married last August, we got a whole bunch of gift cards from Williams and Sonoma ... about $2000 worth. She already has every kitchen appliance imaginable, so we bought a Capresso Z5 espresso machine from Switzerland ... you know, the ridiculously expensive one that grinds the beans, foams the milk right into the cappuccino, all you have to do is put the cup there and hit the button.

I could not believe we spent that much on a coffee machine until we did the math and figured out we were both dropping about $8 a day at Starbucks ... that's $5840 a year (we both drink frou frou espresso drinks, not straight coffee, so something like a French press wasn't really an option).

Now I can't stand to taste that sweetened syrupy swill from Starbucks.

I hear ya. We bought a $1500 Saeco automatic (designed by a Swiss engineer for an Italian company). The counter says we've made 5000 drinks. Even if we conservatively say we saved $1 per drink compared to buying $2.25 americanos, it has WAY MORE than paid for itself, and now I don't need to wait until 8:30 for my caffeine - I can press one button and have it in my veins by 7:10am . . .

 

[Telefied]

I too am a Saeco user. I am as snobby about coffee as I am amps haha. Same reason I love my MOD 50 I love my Saeco Talea. Drip coffee is for the birds. No other country uses that method for coffee as much as the USA. Best way is to pull a long coffee through a good automatic espresso machine like a Saeco Talea or Giro. On the on the cheap though I have a Keurig single cup brewer at my desk here at work. Solid cup for what it is. Beats the crap out of drip makers and comes to like .37 cents a cup. Anyhoo this thread is hilarious.

 

[2112]

I think the perfect way to start a day

and since this is a guitar forum here is one I donated the labels for

 

[muudrock]

I like speedway coffee--24 oz., black

 

[jusufo]

Try checking for some reviews here:

http://www.minifridge24.com/

 

[ronanlien]

I have Nespresso, it is a really good coffee maker. I love it.

 

[CornNutz]

I'd be willing to bet Bruce has already made his purchase, probably a few coffee makers by now. His post was from 11 years ago